A known pressure sensor as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,135, assigned to the assignee of the present invention, the subject matter of which is included herein by this reference, comprises a capacitive pressure transducer having a thin ceramic diaphragm mounted in closely spaced, sealed, overlying relation to a ceramic base and having metal coatings deposited on respective opposing surfaces of the diaphragm and base to serve as capacitor plates arranged in predetermined closely spaced relation to each other to form a capacitor. Transducer terminals connected to the capacitor plates are arranged at an opposite surface of the transducer base and a signal conditioning electrical circuit connected to the transducer terminals is mounted on the transducer. A connector body of electrical insulating material is fitted over the electrical circuit and is secured to a metal housing having a cavity in which the transducer is received. The metal housing is formed with a port for connection to a fluid pressure source to be monitored and a flexible O-ring seated in the metal housing around the port with the transducer biased against the O-ring to form a fluid seal and to define a fluid receiving recess with the diaphragm exposed to fluid in the recess. In that arrangement, the diaphragm is movable in response to variation in pressure applied to the diaphragm to vary the capacitance of the capacitor in accordance with the changes in applied pressure and the electrical circuit provides an electrical output signal corresponding to the applied pressure.
Although sensors of the type described have been very successful, there are certain fluids which are corrosive relative to elastomers used for the O-ring seals. By way of example, fluids having ammonia and automotive fluids having certain additives are incompatible with typical elastomers.
It is conventional to place a sensing element in a chamber and to seal the chamber with a flexible diaphragm with the chamber filled with relatively incompressible oil to serve as a pressure transfer fluid. This approach could be used in sensing a condition, such as pressure, of a fluid to be sensed, which fluid is corrosive to the sensing element. However, this represents a relatively expensive solution in manufacturing a suitable package requiring a number of processing steps including evacuation of a chamber and back filling with oil and providing a seal compatible with the pressure of the sensed fluids.